Whatever You Say, Daddy
Whatever You Say, Daddy When it came time to stand up to imperious tactics and court orders of dubious legality and jurisdiction, GoDaddy folded. The Internet domain registrar handed the certificates for four online gambling domain names, including DoylesRoom.com, over to the state of Kentucky late Monday night.

Other registrars chose to disregard the order as out of jurisdiction, or sent legal representation to the Tuesday hearing before Franklin County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate. But GoDaddy, for all its rebel, cool image, coughed up the domain names DoylesRoom.com, SlotsofFortune.com, USABingo.com, and BingoWorkz.com.

Despite reports on other sites that the online casinos were no longer operating, the sites and names continued normally as Judge Wingate ordered all seized sites already in posession of the state remain as is until his ruling in seven days on appeals to rescind the order.

Lawyers representing various factions argued that the order violated several of the provisions of the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, as well as assumed legislative authority by defining "gambling device" as including domain names, and lumped poker in with illegal games when poker, as a game of skill, is legal in Kentucky.

Governor Steve Beshear has drawn the ire of many groups with his sneak attack. The Americans for Tax Reform, civil libertarian groups, and organizations against Internet censorship have joined the poker players of Kentucky in protesting this dangerous precedent.